'Grand Army' Episode 7: Sid comes out to his father while exhausted Dom is forced to think about sham marriage
In a series with some pretty uneven moments, this episode has one of the most powerful writing in one particular scene. It is when Dom walks in for her internship interview. She is so exhausted that she misses her first appointment and reschedules. In the room with the interviewers, she sounds just like one more enthusiastic kid who doesn't get what the internship is about.
From what we have seen of her, she is the perfect fit for helping women like her be heard and access mental health resources. But in her opening gambit, she wants to sound 'normal'. But then she asks permission "to be vulnerable" like her friend had advised. Once she starts speaking, it all pours out -- her drive, her hustle and the incredible odds she faces and how that makes her the perfect person to help other women like her who want someone who looks like them to say, "I understand".
It is an incredible and powerful piece of dialogue that goes into why diversity hiring is so important in schools, hospitals and any institution that is dealing with a diverse population. It is a hopeful start to an episode that then goes rapidly downhill. Dom is too late to take her math test and the teacher says he can't allow her to take it, meaning her grades suffer. Right after that, her shopping for her hair salon goods is so expensive that she has a breakdown outside the shop. Her friends surround her but she is ultimately alone in her struggle to keep everything together. This is why when she comes back home, she is so exhausted that she agrees to the marriage contract proposal.
It means the family will get $10,000 dollars if she has a sham marriage with a man from her home country so that he can get a green card and then divorce him once his citizenship papers are cleared. Besides being illegal, it also means she will have to give up on her boyfriend John Ellis, who is the bright spot in her life. But Dom is so exhausted at this point that she just gives in.
Sid has a mixed reaction in school after he is outed. Most people are supportive but Sid is more obsessed with who outed him. He goes after Victor and then the counselor, who both react with shock that he thinks it was them. In the end, Sid realizes it was Orlov, who he goes after but gets punched in the nose for his troubles.
His hospital visit triggers off the biggest confession of his life when his dad wants to report a "hate crime". But Sid looks him in the eye and says he is gay and he got into a fight with the boy who outed him. It is the bravest thing he can do at the moment, especially since Meera tries to cover for him. But as we see Sid's dad looking at him in stunned silence, we realize that coming out is only the first step in getting his parents' acceptance of who he is.
'Grand Army' premiered on Netflix on October 16.
